Kategorie-Archive:keydata

Michael Schröer is appointed by the shareholders as the first managing director from outside the family. Although an “outsider”, he is thoroughly familiar with both the firm and family. After all, Michael Schröer has already been working in positions of responsibility at SIBA for some 20 years.

Success needs space. With the workforce having meanwhile grown to over 100 and the low and high voltage fuses, which are now developed in-house, in heavy demand, especially from the big electricity suppliers, the capacity of the existing works on Borker Strasse is no longer sufficient – so new buildings are erected, both on adjoining plots and the existing site.

Together with two technicians, Carl Linz founds SIBA (short for “Sicherungen-Bau”, i.e. Fuse Production) in 1946. He begins by refurbishing used fuses, i.e. ones that have already switched, because in immediate post-war Germany, valuable materials such as copper and silver are in short supply – a time with no alternative to recycling.

17.9.2010 – Bernd Schwegmann Jr. becomes managing director of SIBA. Like his father, he, too, has prepared thoroughly for the job: He has been working in the firm since 2001, gradually acquiring responsibility. After graduating in business administration, he previously worked at German insurance giant R+V-Versicherung.

Aged just 35, Bernd Schwegmann joins the company’s management – territory he is already familiar with, having started out in the accounts department of the family firm some ten years previously. With a background in business and commerce, he acquired the additional technical knowledge required through courses at technical college and from the experts in the firm.

The first (and hitherto only) corporate acquisition: SIBA takes over ELU, a likewise long-established company based in Dortmund, Germany – though specialising in the manufacture of miniature fuses. SIBA has already been producing part of the ELU portfolio, so the takeover now completes the integration process. The ELU product range perfectly complements SIBA’s own market position, as it now also gives SIBA a strong pillar in the ever faster growing market for fuses needed for applications in industrial electronics.

Effective since the turn of the year 2019/20, SIBA has restructured the organisation of its Asia business. Customers in the Asia-Pacific region are now looked after by a new subsidiary, SIBA Asia Pte Ltd. Like the old establishment, SIBA Far East, the new company also has its office in Singapore – but is now located in the city’s central Kallang district. The reorganisation presented itself as the former representative went into retirement.

Just how farsighted the initial choice of location was becomes clear when the success of the business gives rise to a need for yet more space. So first of all, the year 2011 sees the construction of new office and warehouse premises. This is followed by increased space for production, with a new factory building completed in 2016. This building phase also includes further office premises. And finally, the new high bay warehouse comes on stream in 2019.

Seven years after assuming the reins, Bernd Schwegmann Sr. flies to South Africa, accompanied by his sales director. There, he meets with Hassen I. Hassen, a technical salesman of Indian descent, and founds the first SIBA subsidiary abroad, with Hassen as general manager. The latter already knows the business as he has previously sold fuses on behalf of a trading agency – including, of course, products from SIBA.

The long-standing contacts through the first subsidiary in South Africa prove highly valuable when it comes to finding suitable personnel for a branch in the USA. Sales personnel with technical expertise in fuses are thin on the ground. However, thanks to good connections on the part of the South African representative in the USA, a suitable candidate is soon found – and SIBA Fuses L.L.C. USA can be established. The company is located in West Caldwell, New Jersey, only around 40 km (25 miles) from Manhattan.